Kyra Reisenfeld presenting her poster at OARC.
Ohio University undergraduate students Kyra Reisenfeld and Chance Patznick presented their research at the Ohio Avian Research Conference at Dennison University on Oct. 14 to an audience that included governmental, non-governmental, and university researchers as well as amateur ornithologists and interested community members.
The Biological Sciences students are doing undergraduate research in Dr. Kelly Williams’ lab. Patznick and Reisenfeld are members of the Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies and the UnderGraduate Research Immersion Program.
Undergraduate research experience has helped both students acquire skills used in their field including designing and implementing their own research to test specific hypotheses, analyzing data and communicating their results.
“The field and lab research has given me applied skills I will need for jobs in the future and presenting at a conference allowed me to see the range of bird research being conducted in Ohio,” Patznick said. Both students found that presenting their work at a conference improved their communication skills, provided an opportunity to get feedback on their work and make important connections with professionals in their fields.
Reisenfeld using a spectrophotometer to measure brightness of bird feathers.
Reisenfeld Wins Award for Outstanding Student Presentation
Reisenfeld was awarded the David R. Osborne Award for outstanding student presentation for her talk and poster titled “Plumage reflectance, territory quality and social interactions in the hooded warbler.”
She began working in Williams’ lab in 2016 and has learned a variety of skills used in avian research. She used a spectrophotometer to measure feather reflectance across the ultraviolet and visual spectrum, used ArcGIS to determine territory size and overlap with the social mate, and compiled data including adult condition and fledging success of the nests.
She completed her Departmental Honors Thesis in April 2017 under direction of Williams and Ph.D. student Brandan Gray. She found that presenting her work at a conference taught her to communicate her research to a wider audience, a valuable skill that prepares her for graduate school.
Patznick measuring a wing of a nestling hooded warbler.
Patznick Studies Breeding Ecology of Hooded Warblers
Patznick presented a poster titled “Parental provisioning and nestling diet in hooded warblers (Setophaga citrina).” She began studying the breeding ecology of hooded warblers with Williams’ team of students in Zaleski and Tar Hollow State forests during the summer of 2017 and became interested in the food items that parents bring to the nest to feed their chicks.
Patznick used video recordings to determine how much food parents bring to the nest and identified a wide range of prey items that parents feed their young including caterpillars, moths, spiders, flies, bees, crickets and even walking sticks.
Chance Patznick uses video to identify prey items brought by parents to the nest. Here, the male is delivering a spider to the chicks.
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